Wednesday, July 31, 2013

I get that this is not exactly the best picture I could have posted of Notre Dame but I feel like my readers will appreciate it more than any other I could have chosen. Paris in the spring.....blue skies, fair temperatures, gay moods.......Not so much on our first day in the City of Lights. I think that our winter ski outfits, the grey skies and Evans's pose sum up the atmosphere on Day 1. This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. Truly we were far from miserable though and it was a fun rainy day (once we got everyone [Evans] watered and fed). We started on the Left Bank of Notre Dame because 14 years ago (I can't believe I'm admitting it was that long ago) my Grandmother, mother, sister and myself spent two weeks in Paris on our Spring Break. The trip was memorable for a MILLION reasons (including Mom's tumble in the Louve which resulted in a broken foot) and it was so nice to start our re-visit to the city on the same street as the flat we stayed in all those years ago. Unfortunately the weather wasn't ideal and Evans wasn't nearly as impressed with Notre Dame as we thought he might be.

Something about subarctic temperatures at the end of May seemed to be getting him down. I could relate.

But we soldiered on. Our final stop of day 1 (there was a lot of walking involved in the interim) was to visit Musee de l'Orangerie. Back in 1999 this was one of the top museums that we wanted to visit while in Paris. My mother read to us about Monet's Waterlily's and how they were supposed to be fantastic. Upon arriving in Paris and eventually l'Orangerie we noticed that it seemed pretty deserted. As we walked up the steps to the museum it became obvious we were attempting to visit on a closed day. There was a lone piece of paper tacked to the door (at least this is how I am remembering it in my head) that read something like this:

Dear Patrons:

Musee de l'Orangerie closed about 5 minutes ago for a few renovations. We will re-open again in ten years. Please plan on revisiting in 2009. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

ANYWAYS.

l'Orangerie WAS open this time around. I was thrilled. I was finally going to see those water lily's. I post this next picture just so you can get an idea of Deaner's accouterments that were along for the day.

We stood in a relatively short line to enter the museum. As we edged up towards the metal detector a sudden look of panic crossed Deaner's face and he mumbled that he would "be right back" only to turn around and fight his way backwards through the line and back out the front door. I had no idea what was going on but went thru the metal detector and waited for him. When he caught up to me 10 minutes later and I asked what in the world had happened he responded very nonchalantly "Oh. That. Well, I had a knife in my backpack and I didn't think they would let me bring it in". Huh. Ok. So apparently my husband is that guy who carries a knife around in his backpack. I wasn't aware either. Why did he run back outside? To HIDE his knife in the bushes. Because that is where museum going knife carrying people stash their knives. Knife and flashlight combo stayed home for Disney. Water lily's = super cool.

I was going to combine both Paris days into one post but my bed is calling my name and I'll have to finish day 2 tomorrow. The weather and our moods perked up the second day in Paris so no worries there. I'll leave you with a picture of Evans's favorite part of Day 1.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

How can it possibly be that the last time I blogged was back in April? I have a few excuses up my sleeve but none of them really justify the span of MONTHS that it has been since I last filled the world in on the goings on in our lives. Not that they have been all that exciting but we have had a few bits of excitement here and there! I'll never be able to catch everyone up on the last three months in one post but I'll try and hit the highlights. First and foremost (and most obvious) we would like to officially announce in blogland that we are expecting our second child around January 20th, 2014. Deaner and I could not be more excited and surprisingly enough, Evans appears to be just as pumped as we are. He has tagged along to all the doctor's appointments up to this point and loves going to "the mama doctor" to see the little baby on the screen. He talks constantly about the baby (truthfully, he talks constantly about anything that strikes his fancy and most days I'm ready to put in the ear plugs by 5pm) and seems to really be into the idea of having a brother or sister. We completely understand that this will more than likely change once the baby physically appears and can't be sent away. For now he is happy to share with every single person he encounters that mama has a baby girl in her stomach and we are going to name her Charlotte. This would all be good and well except that we don't know what sex the baby is yet. If you ask him what we might name a baby boy he will tell you "Dump Truck" and then explain that it is a girl. I'll worry about this in a few weeks when we find out for sure whether we are expecting a Charlotte or a Dump Truck and I'll keep y'all posted.

We have actually had a pretty busy summer so far though it has stalled out over the past few weeks with an actual "heatwave" in Germany. Of course this means temperatures in the 90's but with no AC anywhere in Europe, I'd say the terminology is appropriate. Deaner and I took Evans back in May for a long weekend in Paris which included two days in the city and two days in Disneyland Paris.

Though you can't tell from the above picture, Evans pretty much couldn't contain his excitement.

Especially when Lightning McQueen was involved.

Thankfully Mama was along to take all the pictures. You might not be able to tell but I actually was on the vacation too. They brought me along to be the official documenter. More on that trip later. The pictures of Evans are hysterical and they really do deserve their own post.

On the heels of our trip to Paris we had a nice visit from Old Dad and Grandmag from Atlanta. We had a blast and were sad to see them go at the end of June though we hardly had time to cry because the next week we meet the entire Gleaton family in Provence for a week in the South of France. Again, there are too many pictures from these trips to start posting here but that gives me an excuse to not to wait 3 months before the next post. Now we are almost to August, I've ALMOST finished re-decorating Evans's big boy room (just wait til you see the pictures) and we will find out if we will be having another son or a daughter on August 15th. A big month for us coming up and I can't wait!

For now I will leave you with some pictures from today. When we got up this morning Evans and I had no plans for the day. In order to avoid a whole day filled with this.....

We packed up and met Daddy for lunch. Unfortunately Deaner had JUST had his eye dilated when we met up with him for some grub.

Since his (8th) pair of nice glasses broke on Saturday, he actually had to wear the pair issued from the eye doctor. Ha ha ha. Evans found them highly entertaining and couldn't understand why Daddy didn't LOVE wearing them.

Hopefully Dad will remember to bring them home from work so we can play with them some more. That's about if for our day today. Evans is down for a nap and I am close behind him. I don't remember being this tired when I was pregnant with Evans but of course, I didn't have an Evans back then to contend with. Stay tuned and I'll fill y'all in on the rest of our travels from this spring and summer in the next couple of days. Happy Tuesday!